You could stay at home with your leftovers, drinking whatever beer happens to be in the house. Or you could bag up those leftovers and bring them to Redifer’s downtown taproom, where you can meet new people and drink outstanding locally produced beer. (And maybe even score some better leftovers from your new friends.) This is the best day-after beer event since Berchman’s Brewing Co. offered free hangover bagels the day after the Fresh Hop Ale Festival.

There are a lot of holiday-season-kickoff events in Central Washington, but my favorite is Moments to Remember. This year’s event starts with Plaid Friday shopping at 9 a.m. and really gets underway at 1 p.m. with a performance of “Teddy Bear’s First Christmas” in the windows of Fitterer’s Furniture, 114 W. Fourth Ave. From there, it’s a day full of activities: a cookie scavenger hunt, a pair of downtown tree lightings, a dance performance in the State Farm windows at 400 N. Pearl St., caroling and more. And while all of that’s going on downtown, there will be a chili feed, craft bazaar and photos with Santa over at the fairgrounds.

If there’s anything in the world better than Santa, it’s cookies. So combining the two is a pretty genius move on the part of Washington Fruit Place. This event, which will not feature professional photography but at which you can shoot your own photos for free, is tailor-made for kids and parents alike. The little ones get to tell the big guy everything they want for Christmas this year. And then they get cookies, which as a parent you can confiscate and eat yourself. Besides which, the old-timey vibe at Washington Fruit Place produces a very nice holiday environment.

This is another standout family holiday celebration, including cocoa, caroling, bonfires and an appearance by Santa. But what really sets it apart is the free movie. “The Santa Clause,” Tim Allen’s 1994 comedy about a guy who accidentally kills Santa Claus and is forced to take his place, is surprisingly light and family friendly (given that it’s about a guy who kills Santa and is forced into eternal servitude). It’s funny and good-hearted and smart enough. And, at least on Sunday, it’s free. So grab some cocoa and a movie.

Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the Broadway opening of Jonathan Larson’s groundbreaking musical “Rent.” The show, an update of Puccini’s “La Boheme,” brought the vivid, hardscrabble life of the late 20th century East Village to a mass audience and, in doing so, grappled with issues of sexuality, poverty and fear of HIV that were seldom addressed by the popular media of the day. If those themes seem mainstream now, it’s important to remember how transgressive they seemed in 1996. (For reference, consider that Ellen DeGeneres didn’t come out until 1997.) Whether it holds up depends on how much you like the songs. But there’s no question that “Rent” was, and is, an important, hugely influential show.